I Like It Here

We talk or laugh about aging; its irritations and relentless progression, but we rarely confront the reality of dying or being left alone. Nor do we consider the lightness that can come when the success race seems not so crucial. I Like it Here is about all those things, and finally, about the simple pleasures of being alive. An American documentarian for more than 50 years, Ralph Arlyck has created an eloquent cinematic meditation on the reality and surprising beauties of moving through life. Arlyck conveys how it feels to experience the winding down of one’s days as he visits friends from past and present, most of them rather lively, plus children and grandchildren. He punctuates those scenes with reflections on the challenges of feeling your joints and thoughts stiffen, as the camera confronts – both seriously and humorously – the obstacles that loom up in front of anyone who is on the last lap. Threaded through with wistfulness rather than sadness or regret, Arlyck reckons with the reality we all must eventually face. The title’s declaration has a double meaning. The “here” that the filmmaker likes is both his immediate rural surroundings (the fields, water, and neighbors he sees out his window) – and life itself.